Several days ago, the ECB sparked the ire of pretty much anyone with a working frontal lobe when it made the indefensible claim that, drumroll, QE had helped reduce inequality. ECB asset purchases have reduced inequality in the eurozone, our research shows. They have especially benefited low-income households, which suffer the most from unemployment. That’s […]
Finance
Latest News
New Home Sales Crush Forecast by Nearly 100K…
The U.S. Census Bureau said new home sales in November 2018 came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 657,000, crushing the 560,000 consensus forecast. The forecasts ranged from a low of 535,000 to a high of 581,000, with the actual number coming in way above the high end. The figure for November is […]
Crypto Exchange Says It Can’t Repay $190 Million to Clients After Founder Dies With Only Password…
Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX says it cannot repay most of $190 million in client holdings after its 30-year-old founder Gerald Cotten, the only person who knew the passwords to its “cold storage,” unexpectedly died in India in December 2018, Coindesk reported on Friday. In a sworn affidavit with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, widow Jennifer […]
U.S. and China Begin High-Level Trade Talks in DC…
Giddy up. Two days of intense trade discussions begin today in the Eisenhower building led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his Chinese counterpart Vice Premier Liu He. The stakes are high as the deadline for an agreement is March 2nd. Ambassador Lighthizer is joined by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, […]
Here Are the Biggest Stock Winners on the Day the Fed Went Soft on Interest Rates…
Investors probably weren’t surprised when the Federal Open Market Committee decided not to raise the target federal funds rate on Wednesday, however, a softening of language helped cause a rally for stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.77% jumped 435 points, or 1.8% to close at 25,014.86, while the S&P 500 index SPX, +1.55% […]
“Patient” Fed Capitulates to Market, Surprises with Unexpected Balance Sheet Unwind Adjustment…
With a 1% probability of a rate-hike today, all that matters is The Fed’s tone (better be uber dovish) and any language shifts on the balance sheet normalization. And, by the looks of things, the now “patient” Fed capitulated to both Trump and the market: “In light of global economic and financial developments and muted […]
Secret Underground Tunnel Leads to Bank in Florida…
What drivers believed to be a large pothole in the middle of the road in Pembroke Pines, Florida, turned out to be a hidden underground tunnel that authorities believe may lead to a nearby bank. The FBI has joined local police in an investigation into the newly discovered tunnel, which reportedly stretches about 50 yards. […]
Bankrupt PG&E Shedding More Than $40B Worth of Green Energy Contracts…
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) may shed more than $40 billion worth of power purchase agreements after the California utility was driven into bankruptcy by liabilities for sparking deadly wildfires, The Wall Street Journal reports. PG&E wants the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco to rule whether the company must honor $42 billion worth of […]
Three Concerns Hanging Over the Davos Elite by Nomi Prins…
This week, the global elite descended private jets to their version of winter ski-camp – the lifestyles of the rich and powerful version. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) five-day annual networking extravaganza kicked off in the upscale ski resort town of Davos, Switzerland. Every year, the powers-that-be join the WEF, select a theme, uniting some […]
“Once a Caver, Always a Caver” – Not Who You Think…
Remember the Powell of last year? You know, the one that tried to convince us that there “could be no macroeconomic stability without financial stability?” And this Powell was not concerned about financial stability in terms of making sure the stock market never went down, but rather just the opposite. On June 20th, 2018 Powell […]
Union Membership Hits Historic Low as Wage Gap Looms…
Membership in labor unions fell to just 10.5 percent last year to arrive at a figure that is the lowest since 1983, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started tracking it for the first time. The latest BLS data shows that union membership in 2018 was down 0.2 percent from the previous year, with […]
How $137 Billion Strangely Disappears…
In fiscal year 2018, $137 billion was paid “improperly” by the federal government, according to a recent report. That number sums all the improper payments by what the government calls high-priority programs. They are programs with improper-payments estimates exceeding $2 billion annually. If it makes your head spin, it should. Always the optimist, I have […]
Robbing Grandma and Grandpa: Reports of Financial Abuse of the Elderly Skyrocketed in the Past 5 Years…
More than 24,450 suspected cases of elder financial abuse were reported in 2018, which is more than double the number in 2013, according to Treasury Department data. Elder financial abuse can include relatives siphoning money from older adults, or fraud like the “grandchild scam,” in which a grandparent receives a call asking for immediate financial […]
Here Come The Calls for a Global Wealth Tax…
A new report strategically timed for release with the start of the World Economic Forum boondoggle at Davos, shows that the world’s 26 richest billionaires now own as many assets as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world’s population. The report titled “Public Good or Private Wealth,” found that top […]
Workers’ Paradise? Employees in China Crawl Through Streets After Missing Sales Targets…
The workers were literally forced to crawl on all fours after reportedly failing to reach their annual sales targets in the busy traffic of Tengzhou — a city in Shandong province in the country’s east. The group was filmed being driven on by a male supervisor bearing a flag with the name of the firm, which reportedly disrupted traffic. Onlookers called […]
26 Billionaires Own as Much as World’s 3.8 Billion Poorest People…
While the wealth of billionaires increased by $900 billion last year, or $2.5 billion a day, latest Oxfam report on inequality shows “this bonanza has not been felt by the poorest half of the world, which saw its wealth decline by 11 percent.” With Wall Street titans, tech moguls, and other members of the global […]
Earth’s Richest 26 Control Same as World’s Poorest 50% – Report…
Released ahead of the annual winter World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — a yearly gathering of some of the planet’s richest and most influential — the frightening new report from UK-based Oxfam (Oxford Committee for Famine Relief), reveals a dire gap between those who have all too much and those who have little to nothing. Founded in 1942 to, as the name implies, counter global famine, […]
Will Globalists Sacrifice the Dollar to Get Their ‘New World Order’?…
Trade is a fundamental element of human survival. No one person can produce every single product or service necessary for a comfortable life, no matter how Spartan their attitude. Unless your goal is to desperately scratch an existence from your local terrain with no chance of progress in the future, you are going to need […]
Small Caps Soar to Best Start Since 1987 as China Adds Record Liquidity…
Wondering why stocks are soaring? Simple really – Global Central Bank balance sheets are soaring again…
Federal Reserve Confesses Sole Responsibility for All Recessions…
n a surprisingly candid admission, two former Federal Reserve chairs have stated that the Federal Reserve alone is responsible for creating all recessions in the United States. Former Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke – Federal Reserve Creates all recessions. First, former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said that ‘Expansions don’t die of old age. They get […]